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"IT'S an excellent party trick: un, two, trois, four, cinq, six, sept … counting while switching languages. It has also been the subject of plenty of serious research in the past decade - how the bilingual brain stores multiple languages, and retrieves the information without confusing cross-talk."

Los llamemos como los llamemos, cualquiera de ellos sirve para potenciar la interactuación entre alumno-profesor y alumno-alumno, y cualquiera de ellos da juego para fomentar la comunicación escrita u oral, ya sea en clase, o a través de comentarios en un blog de aula. Es de este último modo como he estado viendo a compañeros de Lengua Española utilizar lo que en inglés se llaman brain teasers, pero que he visto que en castellano han adoptado el nombre de mindtraps.

Wheeler reports on findings that "Speaking two languages confers lifelong cognitive rewards that spread far beyond the improved ability to communicate" (¶1), and "The chief benefit of being bilingual is stronger 'executive control,' ... the chief building block of higher thought" (¶5). Wheeler, David L. (2011). Being bilingual: beneficial workout for the brain. Chronicle of Higher Education, Research: February 20, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2011. from http://chronicle.com/article/Being-Bilingual-Beneficial/126462/

researchers long thought the window for learning a new language shrinks rapidly after age 7 and closes almost entirely after puberty. Yet interdisciplinary research conducted over the past five years at the University of Washington, Pennsylvania State University, and other colleges suggest that the time frame may be more flexible than first thought and that students who learn additional languages become more adaptable in other types of learning, too.

"For a considerable time already there has been discussion within scientific circles about whether knowing and using multiple languages could possibly have positive effects on the human brain and thinking. There have been a number of international studies on the subject, which indicate that the ability to use more than one language brings an individual a considerable advantage."

Black Mass was born in 1963, the brain-child of Jack Nessel, who was the Drama & Literature Director at KPFA in Berkeley, the first voluntarily listener-sponsored non-commercial FM station in the world. (The BBC was compulsorily supported by a government-imposed license system.) Jack suggested the idea to Erik Bauersfeld, who taught aesthetics and philosophy at the California School of Fine Art, and had recently begun to do readings of classic and modern literature for the station. Erik was not wildly enthusiastic, but thought that it might be interesting to search out some of the best stories of the supernatural by first-rate authors who did not normally write within that genre. Obligation soon became obsession.

In short, while "kids" with brains that are hard-wired for written language may get a kick out of learning phonetic transcription tricks, I submit that synthetic phonetic devices such as Truespel, Shavian, etc., are devastatingly confusing and counter-productive for dyslexic or other language-disabled individuals or for second language learners.

"It is often claimed that people who are bilingual are better than monolinguals at learning languages. Now, the first study to examine bilingual and monolingual brains as they learn an additional language offers new evidence that supports this hypothesis, researchers say. The study, conducted at Georgetown University Medical Center and published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, suggests that early bilingualism helps with learning languages later in life."

Being bilingual. Nice article and infographic.

More on the same topic: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/bilingual-brain-cognitive-flexibility_n_2432948.html